Sapphire Radeon HD 7750 Low Profile Review

Introduction:

AMD's 7000 series video cards have proven themselves to be quite capable performers at almost every price point imaginable. The HD 7970 reigns supreme at the top of the hill in terms of performance, but it has a price tag and form factor that go right along with it. However, what if you want to spend less money, still get good performance, and fit it into an extremely small case? Fear not, Sapphire has a card for you. Today I will be looking at a custom HD 7750 low-profile GPU that sits firmly on the low end of the price range at $104.99, but should offer up great performance in a small package. The HD 7750 GPU is built on the same 28nm process that the HD 7970 is built upon but is a much smaller cut-down version of the Graphics Core Next architecture. With a smaller TDP (55 watts) the cooler is also much smaller than most are used to seeing on a card actually capable of real gaming. Most small cards with tiny fans tend to be whiny and annoying and since Sapphire is well-known for its quiet and cool-running video cards, this low-profile card has a big name to live up to.

Now that you know a little bit about this midget-sized GPU keep reading to find out if it packs more punch than it appears to be capable of delivering!

Closer Look:

As is usual for Sapphire branded cards the box for the Sapphire HD 7750 features AMD's Ruby. This particular version of Ruby has her suited up in jungle camouflage and decked out in a bandolier of bullets. If the model of the card didn't imply that this card was built for gaming, the front of the package certainly does! The front also includes the basic features of the card including the 1GB of GDDR5 memory, HDMI/DisplayPort/DVI outputs, Crossfire, and the low profile nature of the card itself. Spinning around to the back side of the box there's a quick blurb about the basic features of the card and a listing of the features common to all HD 7000 series cards from AMD. Sapphire isn't afraid to flaunt the huge list of awards it has gained over the years either as you can see on the bottom left of the box. The bottom of the box has a basic list of specifications and requirements for the card. Overall the box looks good, so keep moving to see the card in play!

Opening up one end of the box reveals another box inside that contains the card and accessories. It's hard to see in the picture but the HD 7750 itself is dwarfed by the static-free bubble wrap it is shipped in. The card is extremely light but is well-packed to avoid damage in shipment. Along the bottom of the box are the accessories: a manual, product registration, driver disc, full-height VGA bracket, mini-DisplayPort to DisplayPort adapter, micro-HDMI to HDMI adapter, and the usual DVI to VGA adapter. Move on to the next page to see just how diminutive this card really is!